I posted a delightful article by Jennifer Raab, President of Hunter College, celebrating the importance of public higher education, which has provided opportunity to so many students from low-income and immigrant families.
A faculty member of the City University of New York wrote to say that budget cuts are strangling the promise of public higher education.
He wrote:
Public education requires more than cheerleading: right now, we also need advocates who are willing to fight for it. And while Virginia may have been an impressive alumna of Hunter College, this year Governor Cuomo has held back 20% of CUNY funding based on an expectation of a dramatic state shortfall. While the shortfall has been much less than predicted, the cuts to public education have occurred anyways.
At Hunter and other CUNY schools, those cuts have meant heavy lay-offs of adjunct faculty. Their courses have been cancelled and, as a result, students are being squeezed into over-crowded classes. A course that, a year ago, might have worked with 30 students in person, this semester will have 40 students in a Zoom room. That’s nowhere near the level of teaching and engagement that Virginia received. And that’s a real tragedy.
In a year in which our public officials have insisted they will fight for greater equity, we need leaders who will fight for the country’s largest public university to be fully funded and its students to be given the quality of education they deserve. We need leaders who don’t only celebrate CUNY’s past, but demand that its traditions of providing a first-rate education for all New Yorkers be maintained in the present and into the future. And if that requires fighting, let’s insist that they take up that battle.
I certainly agree with everything Jennifer wrote as well as the comment above. I think there is an unintended consequence associated with fighting for “public higher education,” that of fragmenting the education advocacy community into silos. I won’t get profane this time. Much like the oft-quoted line “it’s the economy, stupid,” we have focus on education as a whole, stupid. There has to be an umbrella coalition of al public education interests from K through post-graduate. It must focus on 2-3 priorities and speak together, one advocating for the interests of the other. Otherwise the predictable circular chatter of grievances will continue to dominate.
Greg- You are absolutely right on all counts!
Thank you Diane for posting this letter from a CUNY faculty member about the 20% Cuomo is holding back from us. As an instructor at CUNY/Queens College, I have been given only 1 class to teach in the Spring 2021, which is also allowing 4 more students to enroll in it despite no additional resources being allocated to the dept. No thought went into our need for additional space, equipment or materials! The number of hours invested in developing online course materials for all of the part time teaching faculty (who do 62% of the work to instruct), is being unfairly felt by adjuncts across the entire campus. We are also not receiving a 2% cost of living increase due us in Nov. 2020. This situation in untenable for the lowest paid professors in the largest college system anywhere in the US! We need a living wage and students need course options that are not canceled by the unfair cuts from Albany! We need a fully funded college system that gives Working class and low income students a chance at a high quality college degree!
With so many billionaires and corporations in our country, everything public has been on the chopping block. The wealthy have no need for the common good so they do not want to pay for it If we want a civil society with an informed electorate, we need to invest in our public institutions. Opportunity must not be reserved only for the children of the wealthy.
Interesting that in Germany they find money enough to even subsidize Americans studying there. In Portugal, when I was there the students had to pay the tremendous sum of $100 for one semester, Portugal one of the poorest countries in Europe. It will be interesting to see how the U.. S. Keeps up with the other countries who believe that education is a great investment. I remember well when after WWII the GI bill which cost a fortune returned something like 5 or 6 dollars for every dollar invested. How very short our memories are when non essentials like education are put on the cutting block. [People with better memories than mine may remember more precisely the amount of return obtained under the GI bill investment. It was substantial, what ever, MUCH better than the trillions of dollars we spent in decimating the middle East.]
With Dr. Biden moving in to the White House on Jan. 20 we will hopefully see a focus on increased education funding – to get through this pandemic safely for students, faculty and staff, and sustained increase of funding moving forward. Also need a strong Sec of Ed that will push for increased funding of public schools, elimination of charter schools, and stronger support for teachers.